Gary Neville: There will be more clubs like Bury

Clubs in the lower reaches of the Football League have seen their seasons ended early and have no clarity on when fans will be allowed back in stadiums due to coronavirus restrictions.

They will also have to bring players and staff off the Government’s furlough scheme which has propped up many through a challenging period.

Salford City co-owner Neville, from the town and with a link to the Shakers through his parents Neville and Jill, believes clubs need to be alive of the financial peril they are in with Bury having been the first club to be kicked out of the Football League since 1992 when they were expelled last August.

“I do worry that there will be football clubs who come under severe distress in this next few months,” he told the BBC. “And I do believe that there will be clubs who could go under if they haven’t got investment coming from third parties outside of their current ownerships.

“There is a massive economic problem that is about to hit us in the next few months when the job retention scheme ends, and everybody is aware of that, there’s nothing we can do to stop it. The job retention scheme has to end at some point, we have to get back to normal life, but employment will be hit.

“Football isn’t protected. People think it’s a rich industry and it is at the very top but it isn’t in the lower leagues and there will be clubs like Bury that I think will suffer badly.

“I have been calling since day one for the Premier League and other organisations that have got money in football to support lower league football clubs and it hasn’t come yet.”

His warning comes after phoenix club Bury AFC held the first meeting of their Community Board on Tuesday night.

The nine-strong group will oversee the running of the fan-owned club and appoint a chairman to manage football operations.

They are waiting on news on their application to play in the North West Counties League, the ninth and 10th tiers of the pyramid.